Usually sealed infrared sources have electrical conductors for supplying energy to the emitter which pass between the layers constituted by glass housings and silicon membrane layers. This approach, however, has several disadvantages such as complicated production and temperature characteristics.
There is described in the art an infrared source in the 2 micron IR range comprising a membrane being encased hermetically by the substrate and a silicon nitride window. The emitter membrane is doped with boron to increase the efficiency of the IR emission from the source. The solution comprises electrical coupling of the power supply to the source through layers of metallized aluminium, which complicates the production and sealing of the casing. This and similar solutions have the disadvantage of being complicated to produce, as they comprise several different materials.
The use of silicon that is heavily doped with Boron or Phosphor to increase the efficiency of IR radiation of a source is also known.